


What Came Out of Siberia

by i_would_live_for_tony_stark21



Series: Arc Reactor, Magic, Winter Ficlets [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Loki (Marvel), BAMF Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, Dark Tony Stark, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Identity Issues, Identity Porn, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, M/M, Mutant Powers, Mutant Tony Stark, Nightmares, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Tony Stark, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Pro-Sokovia Accords, Protective Loki (Marvel), Secret Identity, Sokovia Accords, Tony Angst, Tony Stark Has Nightmares, Tony Stark-centric, Tony-centric, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2020-12-15 22:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21025448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_would_live_for_tony_stark21/pseuds/i_would_live_for_tony_stark21
Summary: In a world where the Avengers have big flashy powers, nobody knows the Avengers' eccentric benefactor, Tony Stark, has the seemingly innocuous power of being able to heat water. And no one knows he's actually Iron Man either. After Loki kidnaps Tony Stark and traps him in ice to lure out the Avengers, Tony reveals his power and escapes. Loki takes an interest since Stark reminds him of himself. And after all, a human is 60% water. Set early in CACW.Now continuing the story 7/18/20.based on TheDukeofEnunciation's (writing.prompts.re) prompt: "You have been an under appreciated intern for a group of superheroes for a while. Your powers? You're able to heat up water to the boiling point. All you've done thus far is make the team their tea while they chill at their hideout. Unbeknownst to them though, you've actually got dreams of becoming one of the greatest villains ever. After all, a human is over 70% water."





	1. Chapter 1

Tony groaned, squeezing his eyes shut further in an attempt to ignore the painful throbbing of his head. He was pissed, he had thought the emergence of Iron Man and subsequent eradication of the Ten Rings would be enough to stop his kidnappings. But apparently, they never learned. The ice was new though. 

He slowly opened his eyes to assess his surroundings. He was completely immobilized in ice and he felt something trickle down the back of his neck. Great, head injury, dark room without his suit, but other than that he was intact and seemed to be alone. 

Tony was tired. He didn’t want to do the whole song and dance where the kidnappers made some ridiculous demand and he disagreed and got tortured. He had enough going on in his life between running the company, managing and cleaning up after the Avengers, and keeping his identity as Iron Man secret. It especially didn’t help that Tony had met with the Avengers earlier today to introduce the UN’s Sokovia Accords to vehement dissent from most of the team. He made a frustrated sound at the memory.

At least since Tony was running the meeting, he had told the team that Iron Man was preoccupied with SI business and had already signed the Accords. He wouldn’t have to worry about his secret identity as Iron Man getting out due to this latest kidnapping. Pepper and Rhodey would already be worried sick and pissed off about this kidnapping. Not giving them an enormous PR disaster to deal with once he escaped was the least he could do. Silver linings and all that. 

But given that he was enclosed in ice and he had the ability to heat up water, he supposed a sensational news story about his escape was in order. For forty something years, as far as anyone knew, Tony Stark had no powers. Howard had made sure of it. It wasn’t that unusual, most of the world didn’t have powers and those who did either kept a low profile or were usually recruited into the government. But Howard wasn't protecting him from being used, no. Dear old dad thought powers were aberrant and not befitting the Stark heir. Of course, that only encouraged Tony to use them more when he was old enough to realize Howard was full of shit. In the privacy of his home, under the watchful eye of Jarvis, Tony practiced and he was actually good at using his powers. 

And so he got to work. He whispered a quick apology to Pepper and the inevitable headache this would bring her and then focused on boiling away the ice trapping him. 

Within minutes, the ice had dissipated to steam and Tony started looking for an exit. Just as he found a door, it sprung open by itself as someone slowly clapped from behind him. Tony spun around to see Loki emerge from the darkness, still applauding. 

“Loki,” Tony growled. 

“You’ve caught my eye for quite some while Stark. One of the most brilliant minds on Midgard, keeper of the Avengers. And now this? Such a great display of power and precision. I’m intrigued.”

“What do you want?” Tony gritted out. 

“Oh, I was hoping to use you as bait to lure the Avengers. Iron Man is my favorite after all. Excellent flyter that one is. But since you’ve proven yourself more than capable of defending yourself against my magic, you’re free to go.”

Tony was dumbfounded but he wasn’t going to question it. As he ran through the door, Loki called out after him, “Though I am curious why you aren’t on the Avengers. With your intellect and such honed power, you’d make a worthy opponent. More than Captain America, anyhow.”


	2. Chapter 2

As predicted, his kidnapping and escape made the evening news. Surprisingly though, the warehouse Loki had kept him in had unexplainably exploded. The media had worked itself into a frenzy theorizing what happened and most of the major news outlets had decided Tony had created an explosive device to escape from his captors who were remnants of the Ten Rings. Tony didn’t feel particularly inclined to correct them. 

As soon as Pepper and Rhodey had ensured he wasn’t injured and was okay, they demanded the full story. He gave them the broad strokes, omitting his powers. Pepper was already making notes on a StarkPad to hold a press conference and reassure the stockholders. She was great like that. Rhodey encouraged him not to egg on Loki in their future battles and clapped him on the back, laughing as he predictably went down to the lab and commenting to Pepper that he was fine if he was capable of working after being kidnapped. 

Several hours later when his movements were erratic and he was doing more damage than making progress, he just allowed himself to sit and process the day. 

His most salient thought was, “What the actual fuck?” First, Secretary Ross, in all his infinite wisdom, had saddled him with presenting the Accords to the Avengers. Other than Rhodey and Vision, who were his own, in general, the Avengers were resistant to everything he said as Tony Stark. Steve often meant well but he was just so fucking stubborn.

Today was no different. Steve had immediately questioned why Iron Man wasn’t there and had reluctantly accepted Tony as a substitute, even though Tony funded the team. Steve off the bat, true to his super strength powers, believed the safest hands were his own. Maximoff who literally reshaped reality, cared only about her own and wouldn’t have ever supported anything associated with him. She seemed remorseful when shown footage of the people she killed in Lagos but FRIDAY indicated her vitals remained unchanged. She didn’t care about anything that didn’t directly affect her or her fiercest advocate, Steve. Sam, the flier, had been a Captain America fanboy since day 1 and had quickly sided with Steve. 

Natasha had surprised him by agreeing with him though. She was a telepath and always knew the tone of the room and used that to her advantage into manipulating people to do whatever she wanted. But for once, Tony didn’t think she had a secret agenda. She had probably picked up on Tony’s knowledge of politics and was afraid of a future where they were locked out of negotiations for a body governing their team. She always came out on top, and so far, it seemed like the Accords were the way to go. 

He sighed. If it had been any other group of people, maybe they would have actually read the Accords before letting their biases and nonsense derail the entire conversation. 

Steve had even had the audacity to say, “Stark, no offense, but you wouldn’t understand. You don’t have powers. People want to control our powers and use it for their own purposes. Why don’t you talk to Iron Man? He’s a technopath, he would understand.”

The meeting hadn’t been going particularly well at that point, but it got considerably worse and devolved into a shouting match once Tony had smugly announced that Iron Man had already signed. 

He had tried to tune Steve out completely at that point. Steve had been raving about how he had forced Iron Man to sign because Iron Man was his friend and never would have signed the Accords. He claimed that Tony would benefit Stark Industries because the Accord was written by powerful people to enforce their agendas and whims. Tony and Rhodey had shared a look at that and Rhodey made Tony laugh by miming hitting his head against the wall. 

Steve had been seething at that and then had inexplicably left when he got a text. 

Tony remembered heading out for a coffee after the so-called team diffused across the Compound after that, taking Steve’s absence as a dismissal. And then he had woken up kidnapped. 

God. And Loki. What was that all about? Loki had escaped soon after Thor had taken him back to Asgard. Since then, he mostly delighted in terrorizing civilians and making the Avenger’s lives as difficult as possible. 

Tony tiredly rubbed his eyes and forced himself to leave the lab and attempt to get some sleep. An hour later, he was still fatigued but awake. Loki’s pithy statements kept marching through his mind as his eyes refused to shut. “I’m intrigued” “worthy opponent” “You’ve caught my eye” “I am curious” “Brilliant” “Iron Man is my favorite” “power”

Slowly, he drifted off into a restless sleep with Loki laughing at him in a nightmare. The familiar sight of thousands of Chitauri ships and dead Avengers greeted him with the unwelcome addition of Loki’s slow applause. Loki was suddenly behind him and whispered in his ear, “You’ve caught my eye”. 

Tony woke up, gasping for breath and feeling deeply unsettled. While the lack of support for the Accords was no small matter, nothing was ever simple with Loki. Tony decided to be more vigilant and made tracking down Loki his number 1 priority. He had a feeling the kidnapping was only the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all love exposition chapters. Don't worry, things will ramp up next chapter in Vienna


	3. Chapter 3

Tony felt the beginnings of a truly massive tension headache. He had been in a lab binge and was on the verge of tracking Loki via his magic when he and the rest of the world had watched as the UN Accords meeting in Vienna had been bombed by a recently reemerged Winter Solider. You would think a bombing or even an assassin boldly coming out of the woodworks would be the worst that happened this week. But no, whenever Captain America was involved it was always go big or go home. 

Because said assassin was Steve’s friend, Steve suddenly decided that he should be in charge of handling it, with no input from anyone else. He made no attempt at communication with the US or Romanian government. Not only did he illegally enter Romania and harbor a fugitive, but they collectively crippled most of the Romanian police force sent to get them. AND they collapsed a bridge onto civilians in the middle of rush hour. 

So many lives had already been lost in Sokovia and Lagos. The Romanian police force had been sanctioned by the UN and had volunteered to peacefully bring James Barnes in. And as baseline humans they were armed and in protective gear in the likely possibility that the skilled, powered assassin did not want to come quietly. 

Tony could not fathom why Steve would approach bringing Bucky in that way. Oh wait he could. It always had to be Steve’s way or the highway. He was leader of the Avengers. Steve made the call to close the portal while Tony was still in deep space. He crashed three massive helicarriers in DC without a thought about the civilians below and despite the fact that they had his expertise available. He ignored the whole Mandarin/AIM debacle without even reaching out to check up on him. He took Wanda in at the loss of Bruce and the Hulk. He could just leave from a team meeting where they were supposed to discuss the ideas of 117 countries that agreed that they should have oversight. 

The day after the kidnapping, Tony had gotten the news of Aunt Peggy’s death and was devastated. But he didn’t just shirk all of his responsibilities and leave without warning. He continued negotiating with the Accords committee like any responsible person in their situation would. What their so-called leader should have been doing. Tony had known Peggy for decades. She had watched him grow up and was there for him after his parents’ deaths. Steve had only known Peggy for all of a few months yet leapt to go to her in the middle of a mandatory meeting. 

Steve was so singular and self-centered in everything he did. He was effective sure, but at what cost? Even his origin as the man out of time was ridiculous. He had crashed a plane into the Arctic without first jumping out of it or dropping the bombs before the plane reached the US. He had lost Bucky and he wanted to die. It was only due to the molecular makeup of his powers that he had survived in the ice for that long.

Tony turned his attention back to the other reason for his headache. He was on a phone call with General Ross. His time would be better spent putting out the raging PR fire but he was left to clean up every loose end, as usual. Tony should be talking to the media because they controlled the narrative and ultimately, the public’s opinion. If the public had been ambivalent about the Accords before, they certainly wouldn’t be now. “No. Romania was not Accords-sanctioned. And, Colonel Rhodes is supervising cleanup.”

He listened to the other man’s question then responded, “Consequences? You bet there'll be consequences. Obviously, you can quote me on that 'cause I just said it. Anything else? Thank you, sir.”

“Consequences?” Steve asked. 

God, Tony wanted to punch him in his perfect teeth. Tony couldn’t believe he had negotiated away the events of the past 24 hours but his memory of the Chitauri warships loomed in his mind as he pasted on a media smile and replied, “Yes, because unfortunately we still need you, Cap. If you sign, all will be forgiven. We can make the last 24 hours legit. Barnes gets transferred to an American psych-center . . . instead of a Wakandan prison.”

The warships kept looming in his mind, raining destruction down on the Earth. Tony could feel his heart beating out of his chest, as Steve, unaware as always, blathered on about nonspecific amendments to the Accords he never bothered reading. Tony wished Steve could just sign the damn thing so he could hyperventilate alone in peace. 

But then it all came crashing down. He made some offhanded comment about Wanda that escalated into an argument and within minutes Steve was walking out of the conference room. Tony let himself slump down on the desk. He rubbed his eyes, trying futilely to get the images to stop. Maybe they would stop when the Chitauri came and killed them all. 

Tony forced himself up and went to the control room to see what fresh hell Rogers was sure to bring upon them now. He sent out a mental entreaty to any God that was listening to make sure that things didn’t get worse. With his luck though, Loki had probably heard and was ready to rain havoc on them. 

Tony would honestly kill to deal with giant bunnies hopping around Central Park instead of Roger’s temper tantrums. When the building’s alarm started clanging, Tony allowed himself to let out a deranged laugh. Natasha sent him a puzzled look that morphed into concerned. Oh good. Now she knew about his little fieldtrip with Loki. That would be fun to get interrogated about later. 

He said pointedly, “There were more important things to deal with”, he gestured at the Winter Solider escaping on the screen “than discussing how Loki got bored and played catch and release with me.” 

Natasha sent him a disappointed look and mouthed, “Later.”

Then, Peggy’s niece showed up and led her away to stop Barnes or get horribly disfigured trying. For once, he was glad that he and Iron Man were separate. For once the world needed Tony Stark more than Iron Man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> airport next chapter then siberia


	4. Chapter 4

Tony touched down in the suit and nodded to Rhodey on his right and Vision on his left. Natasha, the Black Panther, and the oh so young Spider Man were hidden but on site as well. These were strange times. He hated dragging the kid into a fight but the kid was talented and they needed all the help they could get. He had greater super strength than Captain America and a preemptive fight or flight response that warned him of danger. 

After the destruction in Romania, Tony didn’t want any other civilians and law enforcement officers to get killed trying to stop the powered Rogue Avengers. He had pitched the idea of having an all powered team to confront and capture Rogers and the others and gotten the Accord Council’s blessing. 

Steve finally saw him and looked relieved. Tony couldn’t fathom why. He couldn’t be that deluded could he? Particularly, when he was with Rhodey and Vision. Wanda had literally just put Vision through two floors of concrete. 

“Shellhead!”, he shouted, jogging over. “Boy am I glad to see you. I didn’t believe it when Stark said you had signed the Accords. I know you would be on our side. We could use your help. The doctor pulled the Winter Soldier out of Bucky. He was the one responsible for the bombing. There are 5 more Winter Soldiers out there. We’re going to a HYDA base in Siberia—”

“I’m going to stop you there, Cap. We have orders to bring you in. You and your old war buddy there killed innocent people yesterday. We need oversight because this is so preventable. I fully support the Accords. Now you can either come with us, people you know or you can deal with the armed soldiers who won’t be as nice to you.”

Rogers looked betrayed at that, but continued on nonetheless, “We don’t have the time for this Iron Man, didn’t you hear me? There are 5 more super soldiers out there and that psychiatrist already has a head start on getting to them.”

Natasha appeared and asked, “Steve. Think. You’ve done enough damage. Do you really want to punch your way out of this one?”

Tony didn’t allow him to reply, signaling Spider Man who webbed Rogers and stole his shield and started introducing himself with equal parts enthusiasm and awkwardness. 

God. How had it come to this? They were supposed to be a team. And yet they were at each other’s’ throats in an airport of all places. The last he had heard Wanda and Vision were an item, what had went wrong there? Clint had been in retirement. Tony had dragged a 15-year-old kid across the world to try to put their team back together, but were they ever really a team? Even if they were, Steve was hellbent on tearing them apart. Was it really worth it to keep pursuing it? He didn’t trust Natasha. The only reason T’Challa was here was for revenge. The Black Panther hadn’t exactly deescalated the situation in Romania either.

He could create Iron Legion again. He could use his powers against the Chitauri if it really came to it. He’d never used them on a large scale or against real combatants, but he was sure he could. There had to be an easier way to deal with the future invasion.

Ant-Man stole the shield back and the two sides leapt into a fight. He was fighting Clint and Wanda when Clint managed to distract him and Wanda dropped a pile of cars on him. 

Friday alerted him of his injuries and in that moment, under that pile of cars, he decided that enough was enough. He thought the Accords would streamline creating a force capable of taking on an invasion. But he realized, he was going about this all wrong. If you wanted something done right, do it yourself. He didn’t need the Avengers. He was wasting time on the wrong things. He needed a plan for the invasion yesterday. Instead of focusing on the incoming invasion they were throwing trucks at each other in an airport, squabbling over a ghost of a man. 

It was time to wrap this up. He emerged from the cars and focused on taking out the other side’s heavy hitters. He heated up the moisture in the air around Wanda. She fell to the ground, sweating and hyperventilating. She used her powers to cool the air around her, but she wasn’t as precise and soon the runway was covered with frost as she gasped for breath. Good, that would keep her occupied for a bit. 

Tony kept it up as the two groups collided again. Tony punched and dodged hits from Captain America, finally stopping his powers when he noticed Wanda had passed out from the effort. In his moment of distraction, Clint landed an exploding arrow on him and he was flung backward. 

Friday urgently alerted him that some weapons were offline and Tony heard Ant-Man’s voice emanating from the suit. Friday used the fire suppression system to unceremoniously eject Ant-Man out of the suit. Tony was mad. Who was this guy? For good measure, Tony heated up the air around him and Ant-Man started screaming and returned to a normal size, stripping out of his smoldering suit. 

Damn, Tony should have started using his powers in fights years ago. He felt a bit bad when he saw a nasty burn on Ant-Man’s back but what was done was done. And the faster they finished this fight, the more Tony could focus on actually important things. 

Clint and Falcon suddenly started targeting Spider- Man, barraging him with arrows and dive bombs. Tony called Rhodey and Vision over to help. With all four of them against Clint and Falcon, they quickly retreated. Vision suddenly stared off into the distance and then flew towards a hangar at a dizzying speed. 

Captain America and Barnes were nowhere in sight. Tony swore. That was low, teaming up on the kid was their distraction for Rogers and Barnes to escape. Tony firmly told Spider Man to stay down then joined the others in the pursuit.

Tony saw Vision use the gem in his forehead to knock down a building in front of the hangar but a newly conscious Scarlet Witch held the destruction up long enough for the super soldiers to slip through. 

As the Quinjet took off, Tony and Rhodey followed in pursuit. Falcon was on Rhodey’s tail so Rhodey asked Vision for help. 

After Falcon shot some explosives at him and a further delay, Vision finally responded, shooting a beam of energy from his forehead at Falcon. 

Falcon squeezed his wings together and the shot harmless went past him and struck Rhodey directly in the chest. Rhodey started freefalling and spinning with the speed of it. 

“Tony, the suit’s dead.” Rhodey whispered, fear creeping into his voice, before the line went dead completely. 

He dived to catch Rhodey but he was too far away. Tony yelled, “NO!” as the War Machine suit crashed into the ground. 

Tony quickly landed and cradled Rhodey as Friday scanned for vitals, informing them that he was still alive and that emergency services were on the way. 

Falcon landed a few yards away and quietly apologized. Tony saw red. He heated the water vapor in the air past boiling around Falcon’s wings and watched as Falcon screamed and sank to his knees with the pain. Tony immediately stopped and looked at the damage. Falcon's wings were charred and draped loosely around his shoulders as if he couldn’t move them. 

Tony looked at Rhodey’s bloodied face then at Falcon’s burned wings. He hadn’t meant for any of this to happen when they arrived at the airport. He felt sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do we feel about having a chapter from Loki's perspective next?


	5. Chapter 5

Loki’s POV

Loki prided himself on being up to date on Midgard events. Norns knew why, but the backwater mortal planet had a high concentration of the Infinity Stones the Mad Titan was seeking. Ergo, it was beneficial to understand the politics of the realm to prepare it for what would likely be the Universe’s final battle against Thanos. 

Loki shuddered at the memory of the Titan’s constant presence in his mind. When he had fallen off the BiFrost he had ended up in the void of space and had collided into Thanos’ home. He had remained there as a prisoner for months, slowly gleaning Thanos’ master plan for the universe. He saw Thanos take apart Nebula and put her back together with every mission that wasn’t completely perfect. If he treated his own daughter like that, Loki didn’t want to know what he did to his enemies. The longer he stayed, the more he plotted to escape and warn Thor or someone, anyone about Thanos. Loki had managed to talk himself out of death by selling his usefulness and had leapt at the chance to pursue an Infinity Stone on Midgard, the mortal planet under Thor’s protection. 

So off he had been sent to Midgard with Thanos watching his every move through his own eyes and compelling him to rain destruction upon Midgard, open up a portal for the Chitauri army, and gain the Space Stone. Despite Thanos’ influence, Loki was able to find loopholes in the compulsions and interfere enough to curb the full scale of the invasion while getting Thor and the Midgardians to assemble a mediocre force so they weren’t completely defenseless.

Then, they had surprised him. The mindless Beast hit him hard enough to sever Thanos’ mind control and Iron Man had come in with a nuke. As he lay in the crater his own body created, Loki allowed himself to feel a bit of hope when he saw the Iron Man suit falling back to Midgard through the portal before it closed. 

After the battle had ended, he had immediately wanted to converse with Thor but he quickly realized Thor thought he had wanted to invade Midgard. It had stung at first but the wound had healed quickly, particularly when he used the very reason he had been kicked out of Asgard to escape. Asgard’s magic suppressing handcuffs had never been used on Jotun magic. Loki had quickly been able to change to his Jotun form and break out of them, leaving a copy of himself to go to Asgard’s prison with Thor. 

Ever since his perfectly failed invasion of New York, Loki had been fervently continuing his efforts to stop Thanos. He scoured old texts and the current happenings in the Universe, searching for clues of the Infinity Stones’ whereabouts. He frequently used his magic to create situations that forced the Avengers to improve and be a better team. He studied them and decided Iron Man would be most likely to believe his side of the invasion of the New York. Perhaps, he’d even heed his warning about Thanos and Loki would have an ally to watch his back when Thanos came to Earth for the stones and to smite Loki for his betrayal. 

Iron Man was the only one that tried to discern his motivations. Months into Loki’s interference, Iron Man had figured out something had changed. He and he alone had deduced that Loki wasn’t killing or hurting anyone. He regularly talked with Loki while they were fighting. They had a strange sort of camaraderie at battles, despite being on opposite sides. Loki actually looked forward to seeing him at their battles and was disappointed when he didn’t appear. He was the closest thing Loki had to a friend on this entire realm. 

And he was so ingenious too. Loki had nearly broken character and abandoned his plot of the day when Thor struck Iron Man in the chest with a bolt of lightning. Effectively distracted, Loki teleported to feet away from Iron Man to assess the damage. He had opened his mouth to scream at Thor, just to be blasted backwards with a large chest unibeam, supercharged by Thor’s power. 

And there were practical reasons to approach Iron Man as well. Iron Man worked for the powerful Tony Stark who had near limitless resources on Midgard. Stark had created the arc reactor, a self-sustaining power source which was uncannily similar to the Space Stone. Stark had tried to create an army to defend Midgard and was only thwarted by Chitauri programming. Iron Man and Stark were both intelligent and seemed capable of handling the future of Midgard and all the Realms. Banner was too, but Loki wasn’t too keen to bring out his counterpart. 

Loki had decided it would be best to approach Iron Man and Stark at the same time. He didn’t want to make Iron Man’s life more difficult or for Stark to think Iron Man was compromised. He respected Iron Man enough to not try to determine his identity, so he monitored Stark when he wasn’t in his lab space. 

The more he saw, the more he felt for the man. He was completely unappreciated and always took it upon himself to do the thankless job of cleaning up the Avenger’s messes. He took pictures and shook hands, using his considerable social capital to smooth over snafus. He paid for all the damages. He created all the team’s equipment and frequently updated them. He had a full time PR team to clean up the raging dumpster fire that was the Avengers’ public image. Stark had as many tasks on his plate as Loki did between his company and maintaining the Iron Man suit, yet he still managed to do more and more for the team. And he was vilified for it. 

The Avengers never fully accepted him into their group despite his myriad of contributions because he wasn’t powered. They claimed he was selfish even though he was the most selfless member of their group. They said he was reckless for creating Ultron. At least he had been trying to prepare for the future battle. No one else was. 

The Avengers took and took and took, and never thanked Stark or did anything in return. Loki honestly wouldn’t be surprised if one day he snapped. It made Loki reluctant to approach him and unload the responsibility of defending the entire Universe on his weary shoulders as well. 

Then Loki had seen the disastrous Accords meeting and decided that he needed to act now before the Avengers’ petty quarreling produced irreparable damage. 

It was not his most well thought out plan, but Loki kidnapped Stark and waited for Iron Man to show up. He knew Stark’s history. He was confident Iron Man would immediately find them but he also wanted to cause Stark the least amount of distress possible. He had immobilized him in ice, hoping it was different enough to not trigger unpleasant memories. 

Then Stark had woken up and escaped of his own volition, displaying truly remarkable control of temperature. As Loki watched in awe, he had made a split-second decision and revealed himself while opening the door to the outside world. He never intended to keep Stark, simply use him as bait. Loki wanted to have the conversation with both of them present but since Iron Man hadn’t shown, he had no reason to keep Stark. He tried to acknowledge Stark’s contributions and compliment him but feared he had just been cryptic at best and frightened him at worst. 

Loki destroyed the warehouse in a fiery explosion. Stark clearly wanted to keep his powers secret and Loki didn’t want to be the reason for the world to find out and demand even more from the man. He didn’t want Stark to distrust him. 

As Loki returned to his apartment, his thoughts kept returning to Iron Man and Stark. He couldn’t stop worrying about what had happened to Iron Man. The man should have showed up, not only because he was a hero but because that was his literal job. Loki also couldn’t help feeling particularly anxious about Stark. While Stark wasn’t helpless, did Iron Man truly care so little about his employer to leave him to fend for himself against an enemy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Tony will finally meet up again next chapter. The civil war conflict really took over this fic but don't worry there will be some Tony/Loki.


	6. Chapter 6

Loki’s POV

A day after the botched kidnapping, Loki felt a tug on his magic. It didn’t seem malignant but rather full of inquisitiveness. Curious, he followed it to its source and saw the now familiar visage of Tony Stark. He was in his lab, the one place Loki never looked, but there was no red suit in sight so Loki continued to watch, selfishly wanting to know how the man was coping even though he was the cause of some of his distress. 

The man seemed tired but well. He was manipulating holographic figures and conversing with his artificial intelligence. Of course, only Stark would be able to use Midgardian technology in such a way that his magic could sense it. Loki decided Stark was worthy of a boon and for his own conscience as well, he cast a small but powerful protection spell. It would only activate if he was directly attacked with deadly force, as to not be too intrusive. It was well known that Stark was not fond of magic. If Stark ever found out, he would be beyond livid, but if it saved his life, Loki figured it would be worth the loss of autonomy. 

And then Loki had watched as Stark’s AI brought up footage of a bombing and Captain America and Falcon collapsing a bridge in Romania while defending an assassin and escaping. The footage was so jarring that he was soon blinking and looking at his living room, his focus having been broken by the shock. He let himself sink to the floor, suddenly overwhelmed with the implications and with sympathy for Stark. As the mortals said, the man simply could not catch a break. 

Truth be told, Loki had never liked Captain America. He was far too proud and unwilling to adapt. But he inspired people to follow him and wasn’t terrible at battle strategy. The one thing Loki respected Captain America for was his unbreakable morals. Loki never expected him to be so hypocritical and throw everything into the wind for a man that was a shell of his old friend. He broke the laws he was always so keen to uphold. He had hurt the very civilians he fought for. 

Loki cursed in frustration. An invasion was coming, and the Avengers had effectively started to crack at the edges over some laws and one man. Whatever chance Loki had to approach any of the individual Avengers and convince them all of the future threat was dwindling fast. Their focus would be on the Captain’s rampage. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony’s POV

Tony sat in the white plastic chair in the empty hospital room, hunched over and head in his hands as he cried. The trauma surgeons had immediately taken Rhodey to the OR, harried looks on their faces. Vision hadn’t been able to meet his eyes, promising to tell Tony if he heard any updates before Tony did. Vision had sat in the waiting area. Tony didn’t blame him, it had been Tony’s fault. He had sat in the plastic chair for hours alone, alone with his thoughts, reliving the day. What if he had went after Falcon himself? Why didn’t he go to Rhodey as soon as he had been hit? And a darker question, why didn’t he use his powers to incapacitate Rogers and Barnes immediately? He would have had the element of surprise. Or why didn’t he use his powers to knock Falcon out of flight as soon as he started pursuing Rhodey? He had no problem doing so after, though he regretted it. While it wasn’t pleasant to think about it, when truly pushed, Tony was sure he could use his powers to obliterate anyone in his path.

Tony had been trying to pander to Rogers and keep the team together. Captain America was valuable on the battlefield but if he could take it all back, Tony would rather have Rhodey healthy and whole. And Tony should have realized earlier, one man wasn’t going to make or break the future battle. 

It was ironic. It had taken Wanda dumping a garage full of cars on him to realize that Wanda’s magic induced nightmares were the real reason he had clung to the idea of the team for so long. The image of the ships in the void of space had haunted his nightmares since the Battle of New York but they had been few and distant as time went on. But then Wanda had rooted through his head and every night he had seen all the Avengers dead, with Steve in the forefront asking why he didn’t do more. 

Before Ultron, Tony had never thought to ask the team for help against the threat he was sure was coming. They had never been particularly functional, even during the Battle of New York that had brought them together. Whenever any of them had problems, at best, they didn’t ask each other for help and at worst, they kept the others out of the loop.

He fucking hated magic. It made no sense that getting a second dose of her magic would cancel out what she had inflicted on him in the past, but who was he to question it? He was just glad that the sheer sense of panic that was near constant seemed to have dulled a bit. And he was pretty confident that if he tried to sleep, all he would see is Rhodey falling again instead of the familiar but terrifying crevices of deep space. 

A characteristic click clack of heels echoed down the hallway, pulling him out of his thoughts. He wiped his eyes as Pepper entered the room and ran towards him, crying and folding him into an embrace. Vision awkwardly hovered behind them. He seemed to be struggling to speak so Tony patted his shoulder reassuringly. 

Vision started to speak, then hesitated, then began profusely apologizing for Rhodey’s injuries, saying he had been distracted when he had fired at Falcon. He hadn’t even known he could get distracted. Vision had been with Wanda and had been trying to comfort her. He had felt incredibly guilty and thought Tony blamed him. 

Tony had begun crying again at that, making sure it was clear that he didn’t blame Vision. He blamed Wanda more than he did the Vision and for once, she hadn’t been the real cause of the damage at the airport. Rogers and Barnes were. 

Then they had sat together in plastic chairs in the hospital room. Despite the mascara tracks running down her face, Pepper was carefully poised on the edge of her seat. She sat up straight and angled towards the door, as if she could will the healthcare team into giving them an update. Vision had tried putting his full weight on the chair but when it had given an ominous creak, he opted to levitate above the chair in a seated position. 

A surgeon finally came to give them an update. Rhodey was stable but he had significant injuries including a spinal cord injury that would leave him unable to walk. Tony felt relieved and like vomiting at the same time. He muttered a quick thanks in the general direction of the doctor and ran to the bathroom, trusting Pepper and Vision to ask the necessary questions.

He splashed some water on his face and nearly shit himself when he saw Loki leaning against the wall in the mirror. He spun around, watch gauntlet assembled and seconds away from blasting Loki in the face when Loki opened his mouth and said, “I can heal him.”

Then, Tony shot him with a repulsor blast anyway. Loki was flung into the wall with considerable force. Surprisingly, he didn’t disappear and retaliate. Instead, Loki slowly picked himself up and brushed pieces of white tile off his green sweater and slacks, as a terrified civilian struggled to pull up his pants and run past them out of the bathroom. 

Loki put his hands up nonthreateningly and spoke slowly again, “I deserved that. But I mean you or this hospital no harm. I can heal your friend but I need to do so quickly.”

Tony couldn’t even believe he was considering getting help from Loki, but at the end of the day it was Rhodey. He couldn’t just not help his best friend. There were so many reasons why it was a bad idea to trust Loki but if there was a slim chance Rhodey would be okay, Tony would take it, consequences be damned. 

And that’s how he found himself in blue hospital scrubs, trailing a similarly dressed Loki into the ICU. He had threatened Loki with a painful death if he did anything to hurt Rhodey, Pepper, and the other civilians in the hospital. Loki had simply looked at him and questioned why he hadn’t included his own safety as well, leaving him momentarily speechless. 

Something about Loki had changed again. He wasn’t playing the part of the homicidal god or the trickster that delighted in chaos. He was focused and looked as on edge as Tony felt. 

Then, Tony watched as Loki bathed Rhodey in a cylinder of green magic. Loki’s eyes shone the same green and he spent what seemed like an eternity manipulating strands of magic, forehead slick with sweat from the effort.

Rhodey suddenly took a deep shuddering breath, as Loki staggered backwards into Tony. Tony helped him get his balance then immediately went to Rhodey’s side.

“Tones?” Rhodey asked. 

“Rhodey! Thank god. How are you feeling? Can you wiggle your toes?” Tony questioned. 

“Like I got shot out of the sky. Of course I can wiggle my toes,” he said as he did. Tony nearly cried from relief, nearly missing what Rhodey said next. “Tony, am I hallucinating or is that Loki over there sitting on the floor?”

And sure enough, when Tony turned to look, Loki was slumped against the wall looking exhausted. When they made eye contact, Loki seemed to deflate, but managed to stand and drag himself out of the room with considerable effort. 

Tony turned back to face Rhodey and lied through his teeth while laughing, “Yup, you’re seeing things Platypus. They got you on the good drugs. Hit the call button to call the doctors, would you? Since you woke up by yourself, I don’t think you need to spend a night in the ICU. Pepper and Vision are waiting in your recovery room, they’ll be glad to see you.” 

Rhodey did so and Tony slipped out of the ICU room and helped Loki walk towards the cafeteria. As thanks for saving Rhodey, Tony figured he might as well make sure Loki had something to eat so he could have enough energy to walk unassisted. He was grateful but incredibly confused. The mage leaned heavily on him, seeming completely comfortable and content to rely on him, even while incapacitated. It made no sense, they were supposed to be enemies. And why help Rhodey? He had claimed he wanted to speak the Avengers before but that was clearly a lie. Loki had to have been keeping close tabs on him and Rhodey to know about his injury. Loki would know the Avengers weren’t a team anymore. So what did he want? 

And why did Loki always gravitate towards him? If he had truly wanted to heal Rhodey out of the goodness of his heart, it would make more sense to approach Vision instead.

Tony sat him down at a table and returned with several sandwiches that Loki quickly began devouring. 

Unprompted, in between bites, Loki said, “You were right about trying to create Ultron. There’s an army coming for Midgard.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you ChickyPea02, royalelephant, FofoAmr, AhumokIo and everyone else that always comments and cheers me up with your kind words.

Tony’s POV

Tony felt his stomach bottom out. Well he had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Honestly, he had expected Loki to demand his technology or resources and had been mentally categorizing what he could give away that would cause the least amount of damage if Loki decided to go back to being a trickster. 

Holy crap, that army that he had cut a swathe through, killing countless Chitauri, was on its way to Earth. He managed to push his rising panic down. It was okay, he had already known this was coming and was well into the process of preparing for the future invasion. And it was a relief that he wasn’t the only one stressing about the future. Sure it didn’t bode well that Loki, all powerful god, was scared, but Tony was choosing to focus on the positives. 

He looked at the other man, trying to ground himself in the present. Loki was nonchalantly consuming the last sandwich, as if he hadn’t just confirmed that Tony’s intrusive memories, fears, and nightmares from the past few years were true. He looked exhausted and pale yet still somehow proper and regal. Loki had dropped the appearance of the blue scrubs and was back to wearing the worn woolen sweater and black slacks. It was slightly disconcerting, Tony had never seen Loki wear anything other than his armor and had never considered that Loki owned non-Asgardian clothing. 

Tony took a deep breath then responded. “How do you know? What should we do?”

“More than we’ve been doing. When I fell from the BiFrost I ended up on the planet of the Mad Titan and learned his plans. He’s looking for powerful relics, the Infinity Stones. The tesseract, the scepter, the Mind Stone in Vision. I wasn’t myself during the invasion, I was under Thanos’s thrall. Hulk broke Thanos’ control and I escaped to prepare for Thanos. He is insane. He wishes to court Death. He slaughters worlds and he plans to use the Infinity Stones to destroy half the Universe. Since I failed him, Thanos will come to Midgard himself with the Chitauri army. The Avengers proved themselves capable against his army so I wanted to propose an alliance to the Avengers to defend against him before ….”, he trailed off, gesturing at the air. 

He looked unsure of what to do, an expression as unfamiliar to Tony as his casual clothing. Well, Thanos sounded deranged and terrifying

Tony’s eyes widened as he realized several things at once. “You’ve never been our enemy. You’ve been helping us this entire time. The Chitauri invasion made no sense from a strategic standpoint but that was you interfering, wasn’t it? And since then, you’ve been fighting the Avengers to prepare us, to make us a better team.” 

Loki nodded as Tony continued rapidly, “You’ve been monitoring us and you kidnapped me to try to talk about the invasion before the Accords situation blew up.” 

“You and Iron Man, but yes. I apologize for that, I reacted instead of thinking. And I really thought Iron Man would come, I didn’t want anyone to think I magically compromised you that’s why I wanted you both there.”

Tony just stared at him for a second. Loki admitted to watching him but he still didn’t know he was Iron Man?! After an uncomfortably long silence, where Loki’s face fell more and more with each passing moment, Tony finally replied, “It’s alright, I get it you meant well, but DO NOT do that again. People are a hell of a lot more likely to listen to you if you don’t kidnap them. But why me and Iron Man?”

“I don’t think any of the others would have listened to me. Iron Man caught on pretty quickly that I wasn’t the same after the invasion. I’ve been trying to challenge the Avengers to make them ready.” 

Loki paused then continued with conviction in his voice, “But even without the team, we will have to succeed. The Universe depends on it. We will have to be enough. Iron Man is a genius on the battlefield and you’re a genius in many spheres. Your arc reactor thrums with energy so similar to the Space Stone that they could be sisters. Ultron only went wrong due to Chitauri programming you couldn’t have known about. And you found my magic.” Loki gave a genuine smile at that and Tony found himself returning it. 

“And of late, I’ve been monitoring you since that first disaster of an Accords meeting. You do so much that you aren’t recognized for. The Avengers would have fallen apart long ago if you hadn’t been there every step of the way. And you have this incredible power. You could easily fight on the battlefield as well as me or Iron Man. I know the location of some of the stones. I want to find them and destroy them before Thanos can use them. And I want to prepare Midgard for the final battle for the Universe. But I cannot deal with this on my own and neither should you. Will you work with me?”

Tony felt overwhelmed with the praise. Loki was the only one other than his parents and Jarvis to know about his powers. For him to compliment it meant more than he could possibly comprehend. And it felt nice to be recognized for all he did for once. 

Tony’s opinion of Loki had done a sharp 180. He had healed Rhodey even after Tony had blasted him in the face for no reason. And looking back at all of their past battles, it must have taken a crazy level of planning to train the Avengers without them knowing and without hurting any innocents. Loki had likely been working as hard as him since the Battle of New York.

“Yes.” Tony replied and watched as Loki’s shoulders sagged with relief. 

Suddenly, Friday’s voice emanated from his watch, “Sir, I think you should see this.”

Loki focused on his watch with rapt attention and Tony offered his hand to him so he could get a better look. “Go ahead, Fri. Recategorize Loki as a non-hostile. He’s an ally now.”

And then Friday had projected holograms, confirming that Barnes’ real doctor had been found dead with parts of a disguise that looked like Barnes. 

“Son of a bitch. Rogers was telling the truth. He’s already dropped a bridge on civilians and helped destroy an airport, just imagine how much damage he could do at a HYDRA base with 5 Winter Soldiers.”

He sent off an emergency message to the Accords Council asking for permission to pursue and contain the two super soldiers before they unleashed 5 purely HYDRA supersoldiers into the world through sheer stupidity. What had Rogers said? The base was somewhere in Siberia?

Tony startled when Loki tapped him. “I can find them with a location spell and help you or Iron Man pursue them.”

God how was he so put together? All of their plans from the past few years had went down the toilet and they had bigger things to deal with but Loki simply wanted to help to make him feel better. Tony was dumbfounded. Loki was volunteering to help him. Loki, god, former enemy, and new ally. Loki was volunteering to help him on something he would gain no benefit from doing. It was such a foreign concept given that his team members that he had lived with for years, wouldn’t have done the same. 

Tony felt like he was hallucinating. Wouldn’t it be fucked up if this was all a dream? Loki was saying something, politely backpedaling his offer in case Iron Man didn’t want to work with him. What a gentleman. Loki was so perfect, how had he not noticed before? 

Well he had, he flirted and bantered with him during battles. Loki was easy on the eyes and had a wickedly sharp mind. The homicidal tendencies and chaos had turned him off in the past but now? Tony was the one that was intrigued.

In the last hour or so, Loki had managed to completely flip Tony’s perception of him. Sure, spying on him was an invasion of privacy. But in the small amount of time Loki was spying on him, he actually saw him. He saw the hours of effort that went into seemingly effortless press appearances. He praised his accomplishments. He recognized Tony’s intentions. And Loki was flawed like him. He made mistakes like the kidnapping, but he had good intentions and had owned up to it. 

Tony had had a hell of a long day and wanted to end it fighting alongside Loki to bring Barnes and Rogers in. He looked at Loki. Loki was looking at him expectantly, searching for a response that Tony’s jumbled thoughts were simply incapable of giving. 

Tony blurted out, “I’m Iron Man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These two are my favorite disasters.
> 
> I keep increasing the amount of chapters but the next one should be the last where they have the final fight in Siberia.


	8. Chapter 8

Tony’s POV

“You’re WHAT?” Loki asked, an incredulous look on his face. “Do you ever rest? Odin’s beard, no wonder Iron Man didn’t come when I kidnapped you.”

Tony shrugged, replying, “Hey, at least—"

Loki put a hand up, “No, don’t say anything. I am going to strengthen the protection spell, we’re going to make Rogers rue the day he broke up the Avengers, and we will discuss this at great length later. Mortals, honestly.”

“Wait, when did you put a protection spell on me?”

“When you found my magic. You’re not mad?”

“Should I be mad?” Loki nodded no. “Good then I’m not mad. I would be an idiot to not accept a protection spell from an all-powerful god. Holy shit. Wait, what does the spell do? Would it interact with other magic?” Tony asked, eyes going wide. 

Loki frowned, “Potentially. It is a simple but powerful spell. It would only activate when someone came at you with deadly force. Wanda activated it?”

“Yeah she dropped a garage full of cars on me and after that I stopped having nightmares and giving a shit about the team.”

“She manipulated your mind.”  
“She must have messed with my mind.” They said at the same time. 

“I’ll kill her” Loki said, scowling. 

Tony didn’t have the energy in him to argue. He nodded, weary with the current state of affairs that was his miserable life. Scratch that. There was no counterargument. Wanda knew what she was doing. She had known what she was doing since she willingly joined Hydra and got her powers. She made sure Tony was tortured daily by dreams and was needlessly devoted to the team that she was a member of. Tony wouldn’t be too surprised if the rest of the team was under her mind manipulations as well.

It was nice that Loki wanted to kill her though. Tony’s public image had already taken a battering with recent events, not needing to explain a death of another Avenger was literally a godsend. And it was nice that Loki cared enough to do it. Wanda’s death was necessary. The public forgot Tony could be ruthless. Tony didn’t forgive and forget. Everyone who had directly threatened his life wasn't around to try again.

Friday chimed in with approval from the Accords council. Tony sighed and got up from the table, gesturing for Loki to follow him out of the hospital.

“Kill her later. We have work to do.” 

“Tell your council about what she did before I kill her. They’ll understand.” Loki replied, voice acrid. 

“Not a bad idea. But speaking of the council, try to stay hidden so it doesn’t look like I’ve been compromised by you. Show yourself only when I shoot a gauntlet blast. We can say we met in Siberia. That you helped me to show you’re actually not evil and to introduce the threat of Thanos. And after we talked, Wanda’s magic was so destructive and obvious, that you found it after just having a conversation with me.” 

Loki nodded, still seething, but in silent agreement. They got into a helicopter and Tony set its course for New York. Loki performed his location spell as Tony suited up using a hidden mechanism in the helicopter. 

Loki teleported them to a snow-covered mountain and they slowly approached the open bunker door. Tony motioned at him and Loki suddenly disappeared from view as Tony entered the mountain. 

Friday scanned for life. Tony forced open a door to see Rogers and Barnes pointing a machine gun at him. 

“Not the soldiers I’m looking for.” Tony quipped, walking past them towards the last heat signature Friday had detected.

“Iron Man wait—”, Rogers called out, trailing him into a large chamber. 

Suddenly, eerie yellow light flooded the room, revealing 5 broken capsules with mist pouring out of them. A voice spoke over the speakers as they walked around the room. All the HYDRA super soldiers were dead with bullet holes through their heads. Well at least there was one less problem to deal with. 

The speaker revealed himself in a reinforced room. It was the man behind it all, the Vienna bombing, the reactivation of the Winter Solider. Rogers immediately started lecturing him. Blaming him for the death of innocents in Vienna. How hypocritical. 

One of the objectives of the mission was to bring him in the bomber too, even though that was currently the lowest item on Tony’s list of priorities. He wanted to disable Rogers and Barnes first. But it wouldn’t be good to have the criminal escape in the chaos. 

Tony fired a blast at the reinforced room. Loki suddenly appeared behind the bomber with a knife pressed to his throat. Rogers made a noise of surprise as the bomber spoke loudly and clearly without a hint of fear. 

“An empire toppled by his enemies can rise again.” A screen by them lit up with the date December 16th, 1991 in Russian “But one that crumbles from within. That’s dead. Forever.” A familiar road appeared on the screen. 

“I know that road”, Tony found himself saying. “What is this?” he asked angrily, walking up to the screen for a better look. 

“Iron Man, Loki is here”, Rogers said with urgency in his voice, trying to get his attention again unsuccessfully. 

Tony watched in horror as none other than the Winter Soldier killed both of his parents in cold blood before shooting the camera. 

Tony felt heat flowing through his body and the air around them started getting warmer as heat radiated out of the suit. He lunged at Barnes and was only restrained by Rogers bodily tackling him. Rogers cried out as his suit burned away and exposed angry red skin. Tony turned to face him. Tony saw Loki teleport into the chamber in his peripheral vision.

Rogers looked surprised and then angry. He said, “It was you. You hurt Wanda and Scott at the airport. Was Loki controlling you? Did he give you those powers?”

Loki scoffed. Tony ignored them both, demanding, “Did you know?” while motioning at the blank screen. 

“I didn’t know it was him.”

Tony heated up the metal of Barnes arm, burning the flesh attached to it and causing him to scream in pain. Tony retracted the helmet and looked Rogers in the eyes, “Did you know?”

A flurry of emotions ran across Rogers face as he recognized who Iron Man was. “Yes.”

In one fluid motion, Tony reengaged his helmet and socked Rogers in the face. 

Barnes fired and Loki reflected it back causing Barnes to flip out of the way. 

Tony grabbed Barnes and flew with him, slamming him into ground. He was vaguely aware of his surroundings catching on fire but he was more focused on making Barnes hurt. 

Rogers threw the shield at him but Loki plucked it out of midair before it could reach him. Bucky managed to get a punch in but Tony punched back harder again and again until Barnes caught his arm and twisted his wrist away. 

A blazing falling tower hit Tony and allowed Barnes to escape. Loki quickly appeared next to him, dropping the shield in favor of helping him up. 

They noticed Barnes trying to escape through a large hatch opening at the top of the bunker. Loki glowed green with magic and soon the entire mechanism crashed down and fused shut. 

Tony grabbed the shield and flew up to the ledge where Barnes was. Rogers leaped onto him from behind but he held the suit steady. Then, Loki appeared and grabbed Rogers in a headlock, peeling him off the Iron Man suit before letting him fall somewhere below. 

Barnes swung a pipe at him. Tony blocked the hit with his father’s shield, then melted the pipe, causing Barnes to drop it. Tony put the sharp end of the shield against his neck and asked, “Do you even remember them?”

“I remember all of them” Barnes replied, suddenly twisting out from under the shield and pushing them both off the ledge. 

They both fell onto a concrete floor several levels down. The space had open ceiling high windows that were letting both the frigid winds and the snow in. 

Rogers was trying to fist fight all of Loki’s clones at once and was failing spectacularly. Barnes had already recovered from the fall and gotten back on his feet. He retrieved the shield and slammed it down on the real Loki, causing all of the copies to disappear. Rogers moved to Barnes’ side as Loki did the same for him.

Rogers cried, “It wasn’t him, Tony. Hydra had control of his mind!”

Tony forced himself to get off of his back, accepting assistance from Loki as the pain of the fall nearly overwhelmed him. As he stood up, the intensity of the blizzard outside seemed to fade away. The howling of the wind stopped and the snow on the mountainside started to melt then turn to steam. 

“I don’t care. He killed my mom.”

Tony leapt up and traded punches with Rogers as Loki did the same with Barnes. Tony blasted Rogers into a wall, before joining Loki to fight Barnes. Barnes was using the shield to weather their combined magic and energy blasts. 

Tony wrenched the shield away but Barnes used the momentum of the action to slam him into a wall. Tony noticed that Rogers had recovered and was choking Loki from behind. He blasted Rogers in the face before continuing to exchange blows with Barnes. 

Barnes found an opening and scrabbled to pull out the arc reactor. Tony saw red. He let the unibeam and his powers loose. When he could see again, Barnes’s metal arm had been completely blasted off and his face and body were covered in various degrees of burns, some of which were already starting to heal. 

Tony walked towards him. Barnes was gasping and stayed down. Good. One super soldier down, one more to go. Tony passed him to deal with Rogers. 

Rogers and Loki were fighting hand to hand. Loki was bleeding from a deep gash in his forehead, probably made by the shield. And Tony could tell he was holding back. If Loki had wanted to—Hell if either have them had wanted to, they could have wiped the mountain off the map and been done with the whole affair. Tony wasn’t even sure Rogers knew how to hold back. 

Maybe they shouldn’t hold back. He was going to be vilified for it anyways. Fighting Captain America. Hiding his powers. Working with Loki. 

Tony had had enough. He closed his eyes and concentrated on using his powers. He raised the temperature to boiling, then a bit higher just in case the serum could keep up. Rogers fell to the ground choking as Tony boiled him from the inside out. Loki joined in freezing him on the outside, until Tony stopped and looked at the carnage. 

Rogers was blue and he violently shivered on the ground, weakly gasping for air. Barnes was still lying on his back, his burns rapidly improving and scarring by the minute. 

Tony was going to have a hell of a time explaining this to the Accords Council and an even more difficult time in the public eye. They’d call him dangerous. A loose cannon. They would just see Siberia as another time Tony Stark fucked up. They’d probably side with Captain America and Barnes and the threat of Thanos would be swept under the rug in the face of a popularity contest. 

Loki opened a portal and pulled the bomber out of it, breaking Tony’s train of thoughts.

Loki placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. “They’ll live. Their powers will heal them. They wouldn’t have given us the same courtesy had our roles been reversed and you know it. Do not feel guilty for defending yourself and ending the fight.”

“I shouldn’t have used my powers, they’re too destructive. I burned Rogers from the inside out.”

Loki placed a gentle hand on his face, startling him. “They are not. They are beautiful and they are you. You could have tortured Barnes and Rogers. You could have burned them down to the bone. You could have burned them to husks but you didn’t. Everyone will be in awe of how valiantly you fought and how much restraint you had. You have so much control.” 

His hand dropped, as he continued, “If I had to meet my mother's killer, I would kill them on the spot. But you are moral and good. You hold yourself accountable. You care so much even about your enemies and I am so proud of you.” 

Tony broke down crying and Loki enveloped him in a hug, running his fingers through Tony’s hair. Tony allowed himself to stay there for a few minutes, warm and safe in Loki’s arms. He felt Loki kiss the top of his head and for a moment, all felt right in the world.

They had won. Nobody innocent had gotten hurt. Loki apparently liked him. Tony leaned into Loki and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rogers is able to heal but he can't breathe properly and it feels like he's scrawny and weak all over again. He also can never get warm. 
> 
> I wasn't able to spell it out, but what came out of Siberia is a budding relationship based on mutual respect and support.
> 
> edited some tense grammatical errors 12/14/19. Also, Tony's fears that the media and the public would hate him were unfounded. When the footage is released, everybody supports him. Loki is also accepted and listened to for his cooperation in Siberia.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I'm back and continuing the story. It was originally 8 chapters long but a lot of people wanted it to be longer and I had a lot of fun with it so it's going to be longer. Updates are going to be slower than usual but I'll try to update as fast as I can.

Tony’s POV

Almost immediately after they had embraced, Loki had tensed up again and teleported them all to outside of the base. Tony wasn’t surprised in the least to see an angry, bound Zemo next to the two injured supersoldiers. 

“I felt a presence” Loki explained. 

Tony took stock of the vehicles parked around the entrance. There was the Quinjet Rogers had stolen and a sleek Wakandan ship that was still warm to the touch. Tony allowed himself a small laugh. King T’Challa had been largely unhelpful the entire time. Tony would be damned if he let the Black Panther take any of the credit for the arrests. Wakanda’s leader would not be the cat that got the cream that day. 

They took the Quinjet and notified the Council of the mission’s success. They had been able to capture both rampaging supersoldiers and the mastermind behind the Vienna bombing. Over the video call, Tony could visibly see relief go through the room of diplomats. He felt almost bad when he demanded an emergency meeting about multiple concerns he had found in the Hydra base in Siberia, watching the diplomats deflate and then tense up in response to his unusual demand. Tony rarely demanded anything. 

The soldiers and Zemo were dropped off to await their trials at the Raft with little fanfare. Iron Man was given a tour of the Raft as Loki hovered behind him unseen. Falcon surprised him by asking about how Rhodey was doing. He told him the truth and said he didn’t blame Falcon for his injuries. He asked about Falcon’s wings and was pleasantly relieved to hear the damage wouldn’t be permanent. There would be some cosmetic scarring but new feathers would grow to replace the burned ones. 

He barely spared the other Ex-vengers a glance until Loki looked generally in the direction of the Scarlet bitch. She immediately started screaming and thrashing against her straight jacket, finally outwardly appearing as crazy as she actually was. Even Barton, one of her most ardent defenders, scrambled to the edge of his cell, frightened by her outburst. 

Then, finally, they could relax, albeit briefly, on the flight back to the Accords Council. Tony rested his head on Loki’s shoulder and lazily interlaced their fingers together. He called Pepper and Rhodey and let them know he was okay and to check up on his best friend. Rhodey had made a miraculous recovery and was able to walk with little assistance, to the surprise of everyone but Loki and Tony. 

Tony decided to rip the bandaid off right then. “I have a meeting with the Accords council now so I’ll explain more later but I wanted you guys to hear it first from me.”

“Tony, what have you done now?” Pepper replied exasperatedly. 

“Nothing! It’s just that Loki actually isn’t a bad guy, he knows I’m Iron Man, and he helped me capture Rogers and Barnes in Siberia.”

“What!?” they both exclaimed, speaking over each other with questions.

“You revealed your secret identity to Loki!” Pepper shrieked. 

“Tones it’s literally been a day man, when did you even see him? How do you know he’s not evil?” Rhodey finally managed to ask.

Loki turned the camera towards him, “I approached him at the hospital and was able to heal you. I was…coerced during the invasion of New York. We had a conversation about the upcoming Chitauri invasion. There’s an even bigger threat heading to Midgard. I’ve been trying to find a way to prepare for the future invasion. I once thought the Avengers were the key to it all, I tried to challenge them to unify them as a team. But now we’ll just have to make do.”

Two stunned faces stared back at them. 

Tony decided to cut in before they could ask more, “As I mentioned we’re going to the Council, they’ll have some way of verifying that Loki’s telling the truth. But I have some more to get off my chest before we literally land in a minute.”

Pepper looked like she was ready to murder him but gestured for him to continue while Rhodey sighed. 

“I’ve actually had powers my entire life. I have the ability to heat anything. Howard kept it a secret…” Tony shrugged, trailing off. 

“So that was you messing with the others at the airport!” Rhodey said, understanding dawning on his face. 

Pepper just raised an eyebrow and Tony and Rhodey looked at her in surprise.

“What? I’ve known for years. Tony I’ve literally seen you reheat old coffee 20 hours into a lab binge multiple times. And I figured it had something to do with Howard.”

“Tony, go ahead and wear your suit and greet the council. I’ll catch up. I just wanted to talk to our new team a minute longer” Loki interrupted. 

Tony smiled at that. Their new team, he liked the sound of that. He was reluctant to leave Loki alone with the combined power of an understandably suspicious Pepper and Rhodey but he understood the show must go on. 

He had to come clean to the Accords Council and present Loki as an ally. He had to convince them that they were the ones with the world's best interests at heart and to take the threat of the upcoming invasion seriously. The very universe depended on it.


	10. Chapter 10

Loki’s POV

Loki watched as Tony exited the plane, making sure he was out of earshot before facing a stern looking Miss Potts and a frowning Colonel Rhodes.

“I’m sure you have more questions. I promise to answer all that I can after this meeting but there are some more pressing matters at hand concerning Tony.”

“We’ll hold you to that. God or not, if you lay even a finger on Tony, we’ll eviscerate you”, Pepper replied in a steely tone.

Loki nodded, “Understood. We are of the same ilk. There is someone that needs to be immediately and completely eviscerated. Wanda Maximoff. I placed a protective spell on Tony to prevent deadly magical force from being used against him and the Witch immediately triggered it. In the aftermath of that, Tony realized she had sunk herself into his mind, plaguing him with nightmares of the upcoming invasion. She needs to be dealt with, preferably twofold in each of our realms.”

“That bitch!” Rhodes snarled. “I’ll get the army to put pressure on the government to let her be extradited. Let her rot in jail.”

Pepper was tapping away on her phone. “I’ve contacted legal to slap her with a court case and I’ll schedule a press conference. I’ll nudge Everheart and her crowd to investigate the Maximoffs. We’ll get the public on our side and there’ll be a witch hunt.”

“Excellent,” Loki gave them a genuine smile. Their ruthlessness for their friend was admirable. “Then you’ll be pleased to hear that I cast a spell that would make her feel like she was always being watched. I want her to suffer for what she did to Tony.”

Pepper murmured in agreement and Rhodes gave him an approving nod. 

Loki looked at the time, the Council meeting was going to start any minute.

He quickly continued, “I have to go but it’s imperative you know what happened in Siberia. Tony would be reluctant to tell you this but the Winter Soldier murdered his parents. Rogers knew.”

And with that, he cast a glamour, taking on the appearance of a brunet man, and teleported to Tony’s side. 

Tony turned towards him, eyebrows furrowing in suspicion, as Loki flashed his eye color to their natural green before changing it back. Tony gave a hint of a nod in understanding in schooled his face into a neutral mask. 

He followed Tony to a podium, as the crowd of representatives flitting around them slowly thinned as they went up the stairs to their seats. 

The French representative spoke into her mike, introducing herself as Florence Bleaker, and went through the formalities of starting the meeting before asking Tony for his statement.

Tony began, “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called an emergency meeting. I have a lot to get through so in the interest of everyone’s time, let’s do questions at the end. I have received some new information about a threat to Earth that is too large to ignore. Thanos, the being that masterminded the Invasion of New York is on his way back to invade the Earth.”

Gasps and panicked murmurs arose from around the room. 

Tony waited for silence before continuing, “Given the recent dissolution of the Avengers, I know many of you are concerned. And I am sure we will have to all work together extensively to face the upcoming threat. I know we included a clause for maintaining the secret identities of heroes in the Accords but in the interest of being completely honest with the Accords Council I have to reveal that I am Iron Man.”

The room sat in stunned silence as everyone simultaneously seemed to realize how much Tony could actually do just as one man. 

“I also have the power to heat up water. But enough about me, let’s get back to the most pressing issue at hand. A lot of you might be wondering how I know about Thanos … When I rode the nuke through the portal, there was an armada on the other side. Ships extending as far as the eye could see. Only a small trickle of their forces had made it through to Earth. It made no sense at the time. Loki could have wiped us out if he’d opened up a bigger portal or opened up the portal somewhere nobody would notice until it was too late. And then since the invasion, Loki has been constantly confronting the Avengers but he’s never actually hurt anyone since the invasion.” 

Loki felt a lump in his throat as he looked at the audience. They on the whole seemed understanding of his actions. No immediate cries of protest from the majority at the mention of his name. Nobody cursing his very name as they did on Asgard. 

Tony continued on, “Loki approached me outside of the HYDRA bunker in Siberia and told me about Thanos. About how he’s coming here to gather Infinity stones, artifacts of unimaginable power. How he wishes to court the entity of death by wiping out half of the universe’s living population. Loki was mind controlled by Thanos during the invasion of New York. But he was able to find loopholes in the mind control and cripple the invasion. He’s been fighting the Avengers to strengthen our teamwork. He was hoping to ask the Avengers to fight against Thanos before all of this went down.”

“How can we trust him?” a voice rang out. 

Ah, there just had to be one person against him. To Loki’s surprise, Bleaker leapt to his defense. 

“Let’s let Mr. Stark get through all the information and have questions at the end”, Bleaker replied sternly. 

“No, it’s alright, I’ll answer it. I have footage from the suit that I can give to the Council as proof. Loki,” Tony tapped him on the shoulder and he dropped his guise. “helped me capture Rogers and Barnes in Siberia. He was the only reason Zemo didn’t get away in the mess and he made sure I got out of there in one piece. Rogers and Barnes were not holding back. I don’t want to think what would have happened if I had gone to Siberia alone with no backup”. 

Loki then spoke up, “It is alright that you are wary to trust me. That is reasonable. But I am just afraid as you are of Thanos. When I fell from Asgard’s Bifrost I ended up on Thanos’ home planet. I was tortured there and watched him torture and kill countless others. I leapt at the chance to leave that infernal place and when I found out I was going to Earth, I was so relieved because I knew my brother would come to protect it. I thwarted the invasion the best I could while leading it but regrettably still caused death and destruction. I truly apologize for that. The Hulk severed my connection to Thanos but unfortunately, Thor didn’t recognize that my actions were not my own and took me to Asgard for punishment. I escaped back to Earth, terrified. One simply doesn’t cross Thanos. He would be coming for Earth and he would be coming for me. Since Iron Man and the Avengers had dealt his forces such a mighty blow with the nuke, I had hoped they would be the key to defeating Thanos when he returned. I devoted myself to bettering the Avengers and giving Thor a reason to be on Earth for so long.”

Tony also added, “And within minutes of talking to me, Loki found out Wanda Maximoff rooted around in my mind and cast a nasty spell that made me constantly fear the upcoming invasion and that compelled me to work to keep the team together no matter what. He immediately removed it and I can’t thank him enough for that. I’ve felt better than I have in years. I don’t have nightmares of New York anymore.” 

“Any more questions?” Loki inquired. Nearly all the council members leapt to their feet, clamoring to get their questions answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony was too injured to use his powers to escape in Afghanistan, still built his suit from scraps and escaped. Tony has reflexively used his heat powers when nobody was there to see during all the major battles they've been through.
> 
> 8/1 edit. I realized I wrote that Tony left the plane as Iron Man but was Tony at the meeting so deleted the part about the suit.


	11. Chapter 11

Tony’s POV

It had been a day. There had been a straight hour of questioning before Bleaker and a few other voices of reasons had redirected them to discussing action items so they wouldn’t be there all day. They didn’t have an exact timeline but Loki thought they had at least a few years before Thanos would reach the Earth. This brought up another can of worms for the Council. Should they tell the public? Should they keep it a secret? Representatives had debated it at length, emotions running high and they had decided that they would revisit the topic once they had a better plan for how to deal with the invasion. And given that the public’s attention was on recent events, planning would have to take a backseat for now. 

The Council was opening a formal investigation into the Invasion of New York to reexamine Loki’s actions. They would also be investigating Maximoff and the events of Ultron in greater detail, with the Sokovian, Nigerian, and German representatives spearheading the effort. And of course, there was unanimous support to thoroughly investigate and prosecute those involved in what the media dubbed “Civil War”. 

Loki had agreed to sign the Accords after reading it and providing amendments. Loki’s range of abilities would be formally evaluated. Tony was also asked to be reevaluated if he wanted to use his powers on missions, which he had quickly agreed to. And then hours later, they were finally free. 

Tony took them up to his penthouse in Stark Tower and immediately sprawled onto the couch. Loki stepped further into the penthouse, looking through the windows at the skyline. It had been a lifetime ago since they had first met but they were just beginning to get to know each other. 

“Loki, you okay?”

Loki replied quietly, “Just reflecting. This is where we met. I threw you out this window.” He continued looking off into the distance, deep in thought.

“That you did.” 

Tony got up and approached Loki, silently hugging him from behind. 

“I had hoped that your suit would come to you. That you wouldn’t be so reckless to remove your armor when you conversed with me. But I had know way of knowing. When the scepter didn’t work on you, I panicked. I didn’t want Thanos to know, that would have immediately gotten him to come to Earth out of curiosity. A mortal invention that blocked the power of an Infinity Stone. I didn’t want to kill you right then and there but I had to get you out of my sight.”

Loki began softly crying.

“Hey, hey, none of that.” Tony said, turning Loki around and gently wiping the tears from his eyes. “You did your best. You didn’t decapitate me or fatally stab me. And you’re right it was a gamble but I did have a suit that caught me, so you’re fine. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have someone always in your mind like that, being able to look through your eyes at any given moment if they were paying attention.” 

Loki wordlessly embraced him and Tony stepped into it, rubbing Loki’s back with his thumb until he regained his composure. 

“I know we’ve only truly known each other for but a day but I like you. I can’t bear the thought of you being hurt.”

“Oh Loki, I like you too.”

Loki pulled away with a strained laugh, “You must think me a sentimental fool, waxing poetically. You say you like me but you know not what I truly am. It is probably better to keep this strictly professional.”

Tony was pretty sure his jaw dropped. He had never seen Loki this uncertain or vulnerable about anything. 

He immediately responded, “I don’t want to be professional. I want to get to know you. I’m glad you made a move in Siberia because I have a terrible track history with figuring out or even expressing my feelings but I know I want you.”

Loki smiled weakly at that, “Tony, I am not of Asgard.”

Tony replied, some anger seeping into his voice, “Is that what this all about? That you’re adopted? You could tell me that you were an ogre that lived in a swamp and I’d still want to pursue this.” 

“I am Jotun,” Loki responded, looking at the floor to avoid eye contact. 

“Okay so?”

“You do not understand. We are monsters. Frost giants that freeze everything—”

“Loki, you are not a monster. Would a monster have helped Rhodey, or done all the planning you’ve done for years? Would a monster have fought so hard, at personal risk, to save a planet that wasn’t even his while being mind controlled? Fuck whoever told you that.”

Tony paused. “Look at me. Who told you that?”

“It’s in the stories they tell children in Asgard.”

“And what’s Asgard’s relationship with Jotun?”

“Jotunheim. Jotunheim and Asgard are enemies, we fought in many wars.” 

“Don’t you see then? All that is bullshit then. Propaganda.”

Loki looked consternated at that. “I…I had never considered it like that.”

“Now enough moping, we’ve had a long past few days. I think we’ve earned ourselves a break.” Tony gave his shoulder a squeeze. 

“Why don’t I put on a movie and we can cuddle on the couch?” 

“I’d like that” Loki replied with a small, genuine smile.

Loki stretched his long legs on the couch and beckoned Tony to sit in between them, wrapping his arms around Tony once he had. Tony leant back into the touch, feeling a wave of warmth go through him. He took Loki’s hand and pressed a soft kiss to it before lacing their fingers together.

Tony felt content and safe with no worries in the world. And with that feeling of happiness and warmth, he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it bad that the only reason I want a relationship is to write better fanfiction lmao? I was so disappointed the first time I made out with someone and realized it was not all "tongues battling for dominance".
> 
> This was supposed to be purely soft shit with cuddling on the couch, but I guess I have to officially tag angst in here now.


End file.
